Ella Foundation, founded by the promoters of Bharat Biotech, has claimed to have achieved a breakthrough in the development of a vaccine for the dreaded Ebola. The foundation used adenovirus (which causes common respiratory problems in humans) because use of the samples from Ebola virus itself could lead to problems.

Krishna Ella, who started the foundation with his Suchitra Ella, has said that the foundation has completed preliminary studies on an Ebola vaccine. “We have found that mice have developed anti-bodies in the animal trials. It is up to the Government to take up the research further,” he said.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Krishna Ella said that India lagged behind in starting research on the deadly virus, while the US, European Union and China have invested significantly to find a vaccine.

“The vaccine candidate at the foundation laboratory is a human adenovirus engineered to contain an optimised synthetic gene based on viruses from the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Its platform uses controlled production of the glycoprotein,” he said.

Foundation’s lead scientist Nagendra Hegde, who led the experiment, said that the ribbon-like structure of the virus sports a coat dotted with spike-like proteins called glycoptrotein. “Development of immune responses against this protein holds the key in protecting people against the disease that killed hundreds in Africa,” he said.

However, the foundation, which won the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) grant for fostering innovation in global health research, feels that it is beyond its means to further the research. “The Government must step in to use the results to take it to the further level, i.e., human clinical trials,” Krishna Ella said.

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